ALL week in The Herald, in the build-up to today’s Scottish Cup final, we have been running the Six of the Best series, reflecting on previous cup finals at Hampden.

Perhaps coincidental, but the word or name ‘best’ appearing in the series title, coupled with the first photograph we ran, appears to have sparked memories in a few readers.

Back on Monday, we covered the 1972 final between Celtic and Hibs, the photo caption rhyming off the various players involved, but also mentioning the referee, Alastair MacKenzie.

A couple of readers noted that the previous year was when the Larbert whistler gained notoriety, with arguably his most famous – or should that be infamous – moment as an official, at Windsor Park during the Home International Championship match between Northern Ireland and England, with what has been described as the “goal that never was”.

I remember it well, and indeed, once raised it with MacKenzie when he was a director at Falkirk and I was trying to get some copy over late one midweek night. I’m not sure how he took it, but, he turned the lights off.

But back to 1971 and Belfast, when, in attempting to clear the ball from hand, England’s World Cup-winning ‘keeper Gordon Banks tossed the ball up, only for George Best to cheekily flick the ball back over Banks, before running around the Stoke City goalie to head the loose ball in to an empty net.

Only after Best had converted did the whistle sound. Banks waved his arms in protest, the Manchester United legend stood, hands on hips, starring out MacKenzie who signalled a foul against the Irishman. But exactly what for?

Some thought it was foot-up against Best, though his wouldn’t have been any higher than Banks’ boot on his follow-through. Others suggested ungentlemanly conduct. 

A gentleman by the name of Mr Milligan, from the south side of Glasgow, who rang me the other day (“do you have a name Mr Milligan?” 
“Yes, Mr Milligan . . . ”), actually offered up an alternative view. 

Namely, that Mr MacKenzie (although I’m tempted to call him Alastair because I don’t need to ask permission), “sounded his whistle because he hadn’t seen this happen during a match before, and, didn’t have a clue what was happening, or what call to make, but simply blew-up because he thought it was the right thing to do, because that was par for the course for him, because if memory serves me correctly, he was a useless *******!”

Enough, Mr Milligan, enough. But there you have it. “And that was the same year as the Willie Carr free-kick,” added Mr Milligan, heading off on a tangent.

“The same season actually,” I suggested.

“Wait a minute, you didn’t even know about George Best until I told you . . .”

THE Scottish Football Writers Association’s annual dinner in Glasgow was a huge success, the appeal to let players and guests alike enjoy the occasion heeded, for the most part.

However (although it’s not a too serious however), one guest couldn’t quite resist grabbing a word with Helen Flanagan (pictured), who I’m told is an actress who appears on Coronation Street and is also the better-half of Celtic’s Scott Sinclair. 

I say “I’m told” as I haven’t watched Corrie since Ena Sharples and Minnie Caldwell got tanned twice a week on milk stout.

Anyway, Ms Flanagan was perfectly pleasant. But had she been asked for a selfie or an autograph? Not a bit of it.

Instead, someone was hitting on her, looking for the latest plot lines from Britain’s longest-running soap.

The cheek of it.

WHILST having a very talented pool of writers at my disposal, occasionally, one needs to commission an article or two from a starving freelancer, the lucky one this week being Lindsay Herron, an erstwhile colleague who I have known for too many years, most recently, when we worked on some epic productions around Glasgow 2014.

At short notice (is there any other kind of notice?), Lindsay was tasked with providing us with a piece on Ronnie McKinnon, reflecting on Rangers and how their big week back in 1967 wasn’t quite as successful as that of their city rivals.

While Celtic was all about Inter, Lisbon and becoming champions of Europe, the headlines for Rangers focused on Bayern, Nuremberg and returning empty-handed from the Cup Winners’ Cup final.

Fortunately, Lindsay managed to catch the aforementioned ex-Rangers and Scotland central defender, but only just.

On what was a beautiful day on the isle of Lewis, Ronnie found himself indoors. “You only just caught me. I was just in the house because my lawnmower packed in.”

I thought that was cutting it fine.